Ancelotti's Brazil dreams after playing with fire against the Japanese

BarcelonaBrazil wants to believe it can win its sixth star, its sixth World Cup. For years, talking about the sixth world title has become a kind of forbidden dream. A chimera. Without the past "jogo bonito", Brazil gets excited by biting. These are not joyful dreams with harmonic rhythms. They win suffering and gritting their teeth, but Carlo Ancelotti seems to have managed to transmit part of his competitive spirit to a fighting team that knows how to survive. In a very exciting match, the Brazilians overcame a Japanese team that, at times, seemed capable of signing the most glorious page in its history. They were winning at halftime. But in the end, the weight of history fell on them and they were just one step away from surprising the whole world. Brazil, dull and lost in the first half, raised their heads in the second half. They deserved to win and won with a saving goal from Martinelli just when it seemed there would be extra time.

Japan falls with its head held high. The Japanese have been doing a good job for years. In the last World Cup, they defeated Spain and Germany in the group stage. And in the last friendlies before this World Cup, they had already beaten the Brazilians for the first time. Shortly after, they conquered the English temple of Wembley. Years and years of chipping away, of losing many games and of learning. In fact, to understand Japanese football, you have to talk about Brazil. The Japanese have always admired them. The first World Cup broadcast in color on Japanese television was in 1970, when Pelé lifted the trophy at the Azteca stadium. In the early eighties, a young teenager left home in Shizuoka to try his luck in Brazil, where he would go on to debut in the First Division with Santos. He was Kazu Miura, the first great idol of Japanese football, a man who celebrated goals by dancing a kind of samba and who was key in the birth of the Japanese professional league in the 90s. When the J-League was born, clubs signed a lot of Brazilian players and coaches, like the legendary Zico. And in the famous animated series Captain Tsubasa", inspired by the manga comic with Oliver and Benji, references to Brazil were constant. So much so that, to end the series, the comic's creator, Yōichi Takahashi, imagined a World Cup match between Japan and Brazil, where the Japanese, for the first time, felt they had a chance to defeat the "canarinha.

the match imagined by a cartoonist became a reality in Houston. And Brazil, needless to say, was the favorite. It always tends to be. Those five stars on the crest on a yellow jersey carry a lot of weight, even if they've been a bit lost for years, with resounding defeats. In Brazil, this sport is part of the collective identity. It's part of the way Brazilians walk, think, and dance, who get excited every four years and, lately, end up heartbroken. Tired of having a bad time in recent years, this time for the first time they have given power during a World Cup to a foreign coach: the Italian Carlo Ancelotti. A pragmatic man who made it clear beforehand that it wasn't about playing well. It was about winning. Far away are the years of beautiful game.

Brazil came out dominant, but without joy. Predictable passes, slow actions, unable to find spaces against a very disciplined Japan. Vinícius was a shadow, surrounded by opponents who always managed to have more than one defender watching the Real Madrid player. Brazil's play was poor, sluggish. None of the magic of Garrincha, Pelé, Zico, or Sócrates. A hardworking, physical Brazil, too flat to surprise the Japanese, a team with different faces. Against inferior opponents they attack, against strong opponents they defend and strike on the counter. And so the first goal of the match arrived. They took advantage of a serious mistake in midfield by the Brazilians. Kaishu Sano, a midfielder for Germany's Mainz, recovered the ball, slipped between two opponents, and with a dry long-range shot, put the "}blue samurais. All of Brazil was trembling.

All of Brazil was suffering, as deep down everyone knew that losing to Japan in a World Cup was already a possibility. In 1998, when the Japanese debuted in the championship, Brazil was a footballing empire. Now they sit at the same table. Ancelotti, aware that he had to be brave, substituted Paquetá at halftime and finally brought on Endrick, the young forward who until now he had condemned to obscurity. And the change worked for Brazil, who began to pressure the Japanese and gave work to Zion Suzuki, the magnificent Parma goalkeeper, son of a Ghanaian and a Japanese.

But after two saves, he could no longer prevent the draw from a Brazilian team that was now biting. After a play in which the Japanese defense cleared the ball off the goal line, a cross from Gabriel Magalhaes was headed in by Casemiro. The former Real Madrid player, one of the most criticized for his play, took advantage of Japan's struggles with crosses from the flank to score the equalizer. The match, perhaps too slow in the first half, was improving, with Japanese attacks occasionally puncturing Brazil, a team that, once it found itself in difficulty, improved its play with plays from Rayan and one from Vinícius that ended up hitting the post. Brazil was growing as the match progressed. Japan tried to maintain its composure, organized in defense, but sometimes, no matter how hard you work, you can't change history. Brazil, devoid of joy, maintained its competitive spirit and in almost the last play of the match, Gabriel Martinelli avoided extra time with a cross shot that Suzuki was on the verge of saving. When the ball entered the net, Brazilians began to take to the streets, happy. Their next opponent will be Norway or Ivory Coast. Another very tough match, but while it doesn't arrive, it's time to celebrate that their team is moving forward. Not dazzling, but winning. Just as Ancelotti likes it, the veteran Italian coach capable of always surprising. Who knows if he can give Brazilians their sixth World Cup just as he has film director Paolo Sorrentino with him making a documentary about him. It would be quite cinematic, if Brazil were to become champions again after so many criticisms and problems.